Guests

In the case of a political party that appears to have lost the capacity to win national elections, redemption starts with establishing something called the Growth and Opportunity Project, a five-member group tasked with identifying the party's foremost problems and solutions for moving forward. Consider it the Washington version of a cry for help.

One thing is already clear: Recovery won't be quick, easy, or painless. There are no Band-Aids capable of closing the wounds opened by years of self-mutilating politics. The GOP faces complex problems that require comprehensive solutions. "Our policy and our messaging go hand in hand," says one of the panel's members, Sally Bradshaw, who is a longtime Florida-based strategist. She argues that the Republicans are incapable of restoring their brand "until both improve," stressing: "You can't work on one without the other."

Admitting the problem is always the first, and the most difficult, step in any rehabilitation process. Republicans, having suffered consecutive general-election defeats brought on by conditions capable of creating a permanent political minority, are at last stepping to the lectern and clearing their throats.

"We evolve, or we become extinct," says Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican whose inherited libertarian gene stands out in Washington but has proved more popular in the provinces. The postelection math demonstrates plainly that if the GOP cannot amplify its appeal to Hispanic, younger, and female voters, among others, it will be forced to resort to the type of redistricting chicanery that anchored its House majority last year to keep any measure of national power. "If we can't figure out how to grow and appeal to those other groups, we'll become extinct. We already are essentially extinct on the West Coast and in New England," Paul says.

The National Journal laid out a 12-step program to get the GOP back on track. The steps include "Go Big on Education," "Let the Libertarian Flag Fly," and "Bring Back The Bootstraps."

The authors of the article -- Tim Alberta, senior editor of the National Journal Hotline, and Jim O'Sullivan, National Journal White House correspondent -- join The Daily Circuit Monday, Feb. 4 to discuss the future of the Republican Party.